CATALONIA, GIRONA, SPAIN - 2020/04/04: Emergency health workers in protective gear as a preventive ... [+]
Topline: The death rates in Italy, Spain and France—the countries with the highest coronavirus death tolls globally—have slowed in the last couple of days, showing that countries’ national lockdown policies may be working to curb the rate of devastation.
- For the third day in a row, the death toll in Spain has slowed; the country had its first confirmed case on January 31, imposed national lockdown on March 14 and has seen over 12,400 deaths.
- Italy saw its first COVID-19 case on February 20, started national lockdown on March 10, and had its worst day on March 27 with 969 deaths; but new deaths and diagnoses have fallen since March 21, which means it has taken the country about four weeks to flatten its curve, according to Time.
- The first coronavirus death in Europe happened on February 14 in France, the country imposed lockdown on March 17 and has now seen new deaths slow for the third day in a row.
- The death toll continues to rise in the US, with 96% of the country on lockdown, according to CNN, as President Trump announced on Saturday that the next two weeks will be the “worst yet.”
- “We are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel," Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Saturday.
Key Background: Half of the world is currently on lockdown with global cases of COVID-19 surpassing 1.2 million. There have been 66,542 deaths and 252,615 recoveries, a 3.8% mortality rate globally. Italy has the highest COVID-19 fatalities in the world with 15,362 deaths with Spain and France right behind at 12,418 and 7,560 deaths, respectively. Italian officials have discussed a “license” that would allow COVID-19 survivors to return to work, according to the New York Times.
